Video: The political ad that got a famous actress blacklisted in San Francisco

posted at 11:01 am on January 19, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

I’m probably older than most Hot Air readers. I’m significantly older than everyone else on the Hot Air writing staff, except for Jazz, and … well, no one’s older than Jazz, so that’s not much comfort. Jazz and I are old enough to remember when the entertainment industry produced a long string of tedious retrospectives — documentary and allegorical — about The Most Awful Period In American History, by which I mean the Hollywood blacklist era. There was nothing more evil and un-American than to fire people and keep them from making a living because of their personal or political beliefs, these turgid productions instructed, especially in the entertainment industry.

Good times, good times. After watching GLAAD nearly get Phil Robertson fired for his own take on 1 Corinthians (a mainstream evangelical view, for that matter), an endorsement in the California gubernatorial race has resulted in the termination of a well-known actress from a San Francisco stage production:

A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco’s Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor.

Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination. …

The actress was to perform next month at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco’s Mission District in a Spanish-language version of “The Vagina Monologues,” scheduled for a run from February 14th through 17th. The show is being produced by none other than Eliana Lopez, wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

“We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately,” Lopez told KPIX 5. She said Alonso abruptly resigned from the cast on Friday, given the backlash on the immigration issue.

“Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe,” Lopez said.

Of course audiences can’t tolerate a Tea Party conservative in San Francisco! Why, that would be just as ridiculous as film audiences being forced to be exposed to Communists in the 1950s. Or even people suspected of being Communists, because you just can’t take any chances with that sort of thing. Glad Lopez clarified that process for us. Of course, it’s probably a good time to point out that we’re not in the middle of a Cold War with a heavily-armed libertarian empire, but you never know when that will happen.

But Alonso’s endorsement of Tea Party candidate Tim Donnelly proved to be a bridge too far for San Francisco Latinos. After Alonso cut an ad with the colorful Donnelly, the local Hispanic community went ballistic. This led to Alonso being forced to quit a production of The Vagina Monologues that was set to open next month. …

Oh, dear. We musn’t have that, must we? After all, there’s only one belief system among all Hispanics and if you don’t agree, good luck getting a job, sucker.

Yeah, I seem to remember the entertainment industry and the Left rejecting the “only one belief system among all” argument from the end of the blacklist until very recently, and they were right to do so, too. What happened? It turns out that they’re not interested in tolerance and diversity after all, and like the idea of silencing people. As long as they’re the people the Left and the entertainment industry doesn’t like. Heck, we even have the governor of a highly-populated state telling his opponents that they’re not a legitimate voice in the political arena. So much for tolerance.

The most ironic item in this story is the ad itself. It’s a web ad, far too long at 3+ minutes to run on television even for the most well-funded campaign. It’s hilarious, but pay particular attention to what happens at the 1:54 mark:

What? A Tea Party candidate’s ad allows for another point of view from its endorser? Why, that looks a lot like … tolerance to me. But maybe by this point, only Jazz and I are old enough to recognize it.

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That reminds me of the old joke where an American tells a Russian that he his free to go right up to Ronald Reagan’s white house and call Reagan a brain dead jerk and the Russian replies; so what, I can go right up to the Kremlin and call Reagan a brain dead jerk too.

I’m not sure a play about vaginas would go over that well in San Francisco anyway. And that’s a damn shame…Ive always wanted to know more about what Ms. Alonzo’s vagina had to say, and I hope I get to see it some day. The PLAY! Jeeez…

Annnyywho, where’s the ACLU? Or any other lawyers? The producers flat out said they took her off the gig because of her politics. That’s not legal, is it?

I just got around to seeing that ad. It is cute! Not sure how effective it is for a Spanish-only speaker, but it’s fun. (I like in the beginning when he says he married the sexist woman in California, and she says that he’s dreaming that he married her.)

I’m not old enough to have endured the “horrors” of McCarthyism, or the first round of movies that followed, but I’m old enough that I’ve seen several of the “beating a dead horse” movies about the topic, including The Majestic. Marathon Man came out the year I was born, I don’t know if that counts.

More proof that the left are racist to attack Ms. Alonso who represents the majority of their voter base and shares the stage with a person that identifies the problems of California clearly.

Also, nothing was lost in the translation either. Because, when Ms. Alonso spoke of a leftist cause of animal cruelty, without any objection from Assemblyman Tim Donnelly who has a following in Leftist Ca. because he was elected Assemblyman for San Bernardino, a neighbor to the leftist zealots of Hollywood.

Bottom line is the left always slings mud at anything they do not like because they are so insecure within their own skin – Ms. Alonso is an exception.

There was nothing more evil and un-American than to fire people and keep them from making a living because of their personal or political beliefs, these turgid productions instructed, especially in the entertainment industry.

That’s what Hollywood and Leftists want us to think. McCarthy had these Communist subversives pegged for what they were; subversives and spies. Now, I do think some weren’t hardcore Marxists and were caught up in it by association and maybe some kine of a “coolness” factor, but the documents that have been released fairly recently show that McCarthy and the HUAC on the other side of the Capitol were mostly right.

It’s this way of thinking that has allowed the very same Communist culture to take over all of the important facets of our society.

They depend upon people exercising their Christian values so that they can be more easily preyed upon. They view those who embrace virtue and fairness as weak and naive.

And if some are so convinced that one’s reward awaits him in Heaven, then don’t bother worrying about handing over our worldly freedoms and means to Evil. In fact, you’re not helping the situation at all.